Category: Personal Branding

From organizing a Christmas party for your investors to sharing a milestone with your business partners – throwing a memorable corporate event is always a must. This will make you look more professional, but also more friendly and outgoing than most people knew you are. Turning your corporate events into memorable moments you’re going to cherish forever might not be easy, but it’s the only way to make all your plans come true. If you’re planning to do that soon as well, here are a few tips that might help you quite a lot.

Create a guest list

This should be the first item on your list regardless of what sort of happening you’re planning. You need to know what to consider when planning an event. From a simple birthday party to a massive corporate event – knowing who’s supposed to come and who’s not is essential. Creating a guest list might not look like the easiest thing in the world, but it’s actually not that hard either. 

It’s all about using simple yet effective tricks that go a long way – including all your important business partners and potential investors, organizing all your guests in certain categories, updating your database regularly, and making sure everyone has confirmed they’re coming to your event. Doing that will help you come up with the best guest list in the world without spending too much time, money, or energy.

Define your budget

Speaking of money, this is another crucial issue you should look into as soon as possible. Spending a ton of money doesn’t mean your corporate event is going to be a major success, and vice versa. Still, you need to define your budget and take every single detail of the event in it. 

From your catering to your open bar – everything has to be perfect unless you want your event to turn into a complete failure. In case you realize you don’t have enough money after all, you should consider canceling your event instead of throwing a party that’s going to embarrass you and your company. You may not be aware of the things that look cheap, but your guests definitely will, and that’s not something they’re going to appreciate, so either be bold and go all in or don’t throw a party at all.

Celebrate a milestone

From time to time, simple corporate events turn into something else and deserve more attention than you’ve planned. When you’re celebrating a milestone, you have to try extra hard to organize an event that’s going to be memorable. Milestones mark an end of one era and the beginning of the next, but they’re also a sign that you’re doing something right with your company, so they deserve your full attention.

So, when celebrating a milestone, you have to do things you wouldn’t do for your ordinary corporate events. Booking a special guest speaking, looking into those professional audio video rentals and hire that will help you bring everything to a whole new level, and finding an amazing venue everyone will love are just some of the ways to do that. Keep in mind that milestones come and go, but the way you treat them shows the world what kind of person you are, and that has always been vital in the world of business.

Hire a planner

Doing everything on your own and trying to turn your corporate event into a night you’ll remember is quite all right, but there’s one huge problem in this plan – you’re not a professional planner, are you? Just because you’re a successful business person and are great at what you do doesn’t mean you’ll be a successful event planner as well. 

Luckily, there are people who do this for a living, and they’re the ones you need to contact. Hiring a professional planner might seem obsolete and unnecessary at first, but once you start discovering how many things need to be done – you’ll be happy to pay them whatever they’re asking for. Doing this comes with a number of benefits, so be sure to take this idea into consideration before it’s too late!

Throwing a memorable corporate event doesn’t have to be too hard, as long as you follow these simple steps. Take your time and look into these tips, and you’ll surely be able to throw the most amazing corporate event in the history of your company! 

In the world of business management, few words draw as much debate and discussion as “consultant.” For some, hiring an outside consultant is a chance to take an honest look inward, one that serves to benefit the company. For others, consultants are a waste of time and money, providing businesses as much useful information as would a carnival flimflammer or snake oil salesman.

Like all trades and industries, consulting is not without its share of so-called experts whether its legal, financial, or anything in-between. However, a few bad apples shouldn’t spoil the bunch. The truth is there is value in seeking business consultants for a variety of reasons.

The following represent the most common ways companies benefit from hiring outside consultants:

Improve their image

Many companies find themselves in a situation where their brand or their image (or both) have strayed from their intention. Whether through their business practices or plain bad luck, companies in this situation often seek the services of a marketing or public relations consultant. This consultant typically works in tandem with an ad agency or PR firm to devise ways in which the client can successfully reconfigure their image, elevate their brand, and improve their reputation.

Save money

If asked, most managers will likely say the number one reason they’d get an outside consulting service is to find new ways to lower costs and save money. For instance, shipping consulting software gets designed to help volume shippers get better rates from carriers. In other industries, identifying redundancies and waste are the primary drivers of savings thanks to outside consultants.

Streamline service

The brothers who opened the first McDonald’s restaurant didn’t make their first fortune by selling franchise opportunities. That didn’t happen until Ray Kroc entered the picture. Before his arrival, the McDonalds brothers were earning a lucrative living by selling their streamlined system to other quick-service restauranteurs, including the men who went on start Burger King and Taco Bell. In this sense, they were acting as the world’s first fast-food consultants by showing other companies how to operate faster and more reliably. It goes to show what businesses can learn from outside consulting services.

Get insights

Doing business in a given trade doesn’t automatically entitle one to trade secrets. It’s possible to be operating for years without knowing the best ways to do certain things, while competitors do. Outside consultants can outline these insights and improve operations overnight on things you can’t and won’t ever know about from tax codes to trademarks. 

Gain an edge

The improvements, the insights, and the savings that come from hiring a consultant all add up to gaining an edge over the competition. At least, that’s the hope. As mentioned at the start, the key is finding a consultant or consulting service with the expertise and experience to provide the information needed for companies to do better. In doing so, businesses will have a gameplan going forward they can use to catch up to, or even surpass, their business rivals.

Business consultants get looked upon as saviors to some, charlatans to others. The vast majority fall somewhere in between. If a company finds consulting services in the range leaning towards the former, they’ll succeed in reaping the benefits of hiring a business consultant.

Startups have become all the rage in the tech world. Still, across almost every business sector, you can find new, up and coming startup companies shaking up their industries. Startup culture is trendy, but if you peel back the outer layers, you’ll find that startups are fundamentally changing the way people work. While more established and traditional workplaces come with their own rewards, startups offer plenty of perks for job seekers willing to make the change. Here are some ways working for a startup can change your work life for the better.

1. Upward Mobility

While there is always some opportunity for advancement in more traditional settings, the startup’s nature is that they are continually growing. Getting in on the ground floor of a successful startup means that you’ll have far more opportunities to improve your bottom line. Beyond the basic idea that being involved from the earliest days of the company means you’re more likely to get a promotion, you’re also more likely to be in a position to expand your portfolio of skills. Employees at a younger company often wear many hats. Adding a versatile range of skills to your resume is always a good idea.

2. Office Culture

Startups are widely known for having a more open and engaging office culture than their more well-established counterparts. In some offices, that could mean more flexibility in working hours. Research shows that employees who have more flexibility with their work time are happier and more productive. At a startup, it’s much more likely that you will be able to set the work schedule that works for you.

Beyond the schedule flexibility, working for a startup most likely means you won’t find yourself drudging away in a sea of cubicles. For one, you’re more likely to get a sit-stand desk, allowing you to maintain a better and healthier posture. Getting up and getting moving is crucial at work. An open office space with a sit-stand desk and expanded recreation space are tremendously beneficial for health and productivity.

3. Wages and Benefits

Startup culture is, generally speaking, driven by data. While that can sometimes sound like corporate fluff, what it means for employees is that you’re more likely to have better wages and dental. There are two reasons for this. The first is that startups are often competing in aggressive job markets for candidates with in-demand skills. Sweetening the deal with better wages and benefits only makes sense in that scenario. 

The other reason is somewhat more complicated. Startups know that younger and more tech-savvy workers are more likely to have the skills they need. The employees in that demographic care less about the stability of a long career and more about happiness and comfort. Today’s workers are more likely to eschew the incentives of the old corporate world in favor of a wages and benefits package that maximizes paid time off, quality healthcare, and other fringe benefits like gym memberships. Startups know what these workers want and are more likely to give it to them.

4. Social Benefit

In the same way that the workers of the new economy are looking for comfort at work, they’re also looking for workplaces and occupations that allow them to affect social good. Whether you’re looking to help people in need or do your part to stop climate change, startups are more likely to solve these problems than traditional companies. Beyond the core work mission, startups are also typically heavily involved in charitable giving, especially in the fields they’re working in and the cities where they’re located.

5. Location

While the corporate office parks of yesteryear are more likely to be located in hard to reach and expensive suburbs, startups are much more likely to be in locations that are more desirable to the next generation of employees. Startups know that today’s workers want to live in work in places with vibrant social life, quick access to amenities, and proximity to public transit. Startups have the flexibility to choose and, if necessary, change locations to meet the needs of their mission and workforce far more efficiently than traditional companies.

Working for a startup comes with many great benefits that you won’t find in the traditional corporate world. If any of these perks are what you’re looking for in your next workplace, it may be time to consider going to work at a startup. You never know if the startup of today will be the business giant of tomorrow.